{"id":19459,"date":"2025-09-13T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/19459\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T05:56:10","slug":"sunlive-new-set-of-wheels-boosts-healthcare-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/19459\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – New set of wheels boosts healthcare access"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hato Hone St John has gained a new set of wheels to continue improving health access for the community.<\/p>\n

The Mackay Strathnaver Trust has donated a new Waka Ora Health Shuttle to the St John Mount Maunganui station.<\/p>\n

Hato Hone St John dignitaries, operations staff, and Mackay Strathnaver Trust representatives attended a vehicle dedication ceremony on Wednesday, September 9, at the Tauranga ambulance station.<\/p>\n

St John community transport manager Leigh Herewini said the additional vehicle will \u201cprovide reliable and safe transport to and from health appointments\u201d.<\/p>\n

Waka Ora symbolises a \u201cvehicle to help with the wellbeing of our people, our communities,\u201d said Herewini. \u201cIt\u2019s a way we can support communities to look after themselves, to remain independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mackay Strathnaver Trust gifted the first Tauranga health shuttle to Hato Hone St John in 1999 and had since supported the organisation with donations.<\/p>\n

\"

\nTauranga St John Area Committee\u2019s Steve Walker and Viv Pill from the Mackay Strathnaver Trust with Hato Hone St John\u2019s new Waka Ora Health Shuttle. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

The trust previously donated additional emergency resources, including a purpose-built Polaris vehicle for Hato Hone St John\u2019s Event Health Services (EHS), major incident equipment, and multiple Lifepak cardiac monitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the passion and sense of community at Hato Hone St John. It\u2019s a good relationship,\u201d said Andree Withington of Mackay Strathnaver Trust.<\/p>\n

Two health shuttles already service Tauranga Monday to Friday, both of which are accessible for wheelchairs. One vehicle is based at the Tauranga station and the other in Mount Maunganui<\/p>\n

A network of 30 volunteers runs the Waka Ora Health Shuttle service, offering reliable access to transport and connecting members of the public to healthcare.<\/p>\n

Hato Hone St John Bay of Plenty district operations manager Jeremy Gooders said: \u201cWithout a stable volunteer workforce of operators, we couldn\u2019t run the shuttle reliably for people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very fortunate to have community-minded people who give their time to train up and be shuttle operators.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nHato Hone St John dignitaries, operations staff, and Mackay Strathnaver Trust representatives check out the new Waka Ora Health Shuttle. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

From July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, the Tauranga team fulfilled about 3826 trips for more than 700 patients. The age of these patients ranged from 25 to 90-plus.<\/p>\n

The volunteer team gave more than 5000 collective hours of their personal time and travelled more than 56,000km.<\/p>\n

Bookings for the Waka Ora Health Shuttle service can be made online or by phoning 0800 824 325.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hato Hone St John has gained a new set of wheels to continue improving health access for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-19459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}